I've been cycling for a couple of years now on a daily basis but find that most of my hacker friends tend to stick to the redbull+snacks+coffee+ramen diet. What sort of routines do you guys use to stay in shape?
- run 5x per week every morning (~30 miles a week; more if I'm training for something)
- stretch, dynamic before, static after. Essential to prevent injuries
- weight lift 3x per week (bi/tri, chest/upper-back, abs/lower-back/shoulders)
- take rest days
- sleep 9-10 hours a night, going to bed at the same time (EDIT: every's needs here are a little different)
- eat 1 salad per day
- eat lots of fruit (apples, pears, banana's, raspberries, cantaloupe, etc)
- avoid processed foods, and overall eat healthy
- keep stress levels low (figure out what stresses you and then you can manage it)
I use to be very obese (5ft 10in, 240 pounds), but lost the weight through calorie restriction about 10 years ago (6ft 0in, 160 pounds now, muscular, etc). Later I got into running which made me much healthier. That begot eating healthier, which eventually begot weight lifting. Now I can do some crazy stuff, like run up all the stairs in Porter Square. You feel like superman all the time.
The human body needs maintenance. Like a car you can abuse it in the short-run and it's still gonna run. But eventually it catches up with you. Problem is, if a car dies at mile 100,000 because you didn't change its oil often, you buy another car; but you can't buy another body.
It takes time to get into a healthy lifestyle. One-step at a time is the right approach. If you're overweight, focus on calorie restriction. If you're a healthy weight but want to get fit, pick an activity that you'd enjoy. Some people like solitary stuff (running), others like social (team sports or workout classes). If you're not eating healthy, get a book about nutrition and change your diet (Google "Nancy Clark"). You'll eventually find that one healthy step leads to another.
Lastly, keeping healthy is like having a second job. Carving out time and prioritizing it is key. You'll find that friends, employers, bosses, spouses, what-have-you, try to steal this time away from you. You've got to fight back and remember that you're investing in your future. Especially with jobs; would you rather be rich, prestigious and unhealthy, or poor, unknown and healthy? A "good" job or startup will let you be all the good and none of the bad.
I was still growing at that age (peaked in weight at around 16 or 17, so I wasn't done growing yet). Perhaps I'm off a bit on the height (could have been 5' 11"), but I definitely grew a bit more.
Interesting theories about posture though. I have no idea if that affected it or not.
yes I'm guessing this is the cause. I used to slump a lot and was around 6 2" when measured. I spent a few months working on my posture and now I am 5 4" / 6 5"
When I lived in the city I did (recently moved 25 miles away). Cycled around the Charles many-a-time. Ran mostly on a treadmill except when I train for races. Are you part of a running club in the city? There's a good 10k coming up in Dorchester in two weeks if you're up for it. :)
Paleo diet. Cleared up my skin, ended headaches and tiredness, decreased my caloric intake and body fat without any overt discipline, lowered my blood pressure, and increased my strength and stamina.
Downside: No grains, beans, dairy; that means no coffee, no chocolate, no soy, no cheese, no bread or noodles or pastries. (Plus sides: bacon, sausages, eggs, figs, dates, walnuts.)
I gradually fell into this diet by carefully noting which foods made me feel bad ~15-30 mins after. I did this over a process of many months starting sometime in February. Finally, just a few days ago, I concluded that I was basically drifting into Paleo of my own accord, and for me to be at my best I had to go from reduced intake of the banned foods to complete removal. I'm still going to cheat every now and then, but I know I'll feel it every time.
This plan worked out fantastically well for me. I started eating this way around April of this year, saw results after a very short time, then started weight training 2-3 times a week. I'm down to about 145 lbs from 175, and as long as I stick to the good foods (meat, veggies, some fruit) I feel great. Being healthy has been a great help for hacking because of better focus, energy levels, and overall mood.
Paleo has been great for me as well. I'm active as an athlete (rugby) and a bit of a crossfitter as well (that's how I got into Paleo) and it's been fantastic.
As you mentioned, I think it's important for people to find the balance of food that works for them. I'm very non-strict Paleo (still eat dairy, black coffee, legumes, etc) but the elimination of high-fructose products and grains has skyrocketed my energy level.
This sounds interesting. I've had a few unusual diets in the past, and found packing lunches the hardest part. What types of things do you take if you need to carry a lunch with you?
Without packing anything, anywhere there are convenience stores I can usually get beef jerky, nuts and fresh fruit drinks, but one often finds corn syrup, soy and wheat dumped arbitrarily into all three of them, and there's no vegetables on offer, so it's not really the preferred solution.
A more balanced meal would involve a box with pre-cooked meat(I like boiling up fresh sausages in olive oil, it's very easy), some veggies, and a fruit item. Right now I'm able to work from home so I don't really have to plan ahead like that, but it's the obvious next step.
Also, I would say experiment with dairy. Dairy makes me feel great. Full fat yogurt is a fantastically cheap and healthy central component to a meal if it agrees with you (I think ethnicity is relevant here). Yogurt has minimal lactose. So what if cavemen didn't have it.
It really depends on your individual tolerances. Before I started on my trend towards paleo I was heavy into dairy and I've determined that it contributed to a stomach cramping problem.
Coffee is a bean, as is cocoa. I can manage pretty well with beans most of the time, but they're doing something that I can't pinpoint yet. It's an iterative thing, and when I cheat it's an opportunity to learn more about how those things affect me.
I don't think coffee is technically a bean. It's the pit of a fruit. Anyway, it has no calories. Cavemen almost certainly drank various teas.
It's very important with the paleo stuff not get caught up in what I've seen aptly described as "food reenactment." Honey and many starchy roots are technically "paleo", but you should still mostly avoid them. Brains and colon meat are definitely paleo, but you can't feasibly purchase them. "Paleo" is a good starting principle but in the modern world it's insufficient and you have to go with the research and what works for you.
Get hobbies that correspond to the lifestyle you want to lead. If you aren't having fun, you won't keep with it.
As a corollary, if you have an active hobby and any sort of drive to be good at it, you will train yourself as such. So if you take up say rock climbing and like it, then you will get lots of exercise as a direct result of climbing, and lots more to train yourself to get better.
Climbing is a great sport for hackers. Each route up a wall presents a problem in need of solving -- and often, brute force won't help you.
You've really got to think through a route and learn the sequence of moves that'll get you to the top. And then, once you've got a route completely figured out, the gym changes it on you and throws a new problem in the way.
Highly recommended for people who like to work their brains while they exercise.
Be careful though, it will take over your life! I am constantly battling between working 100% on getting a startup off the ground and selling all of my possessions, buying a van, and driving around the world climbing.
I can't agree with this more, I walked into a rock gym a couple of years ago and picked a wall and said "I want to be able to climb that." I defined a goal and then I set a time frame for it. Admittedly I didn't make that goal but you better believe that I did achieve it a few weeks later and I was even more motivated for the next wall. The neat thing about rock gyms is that there are a lot of people who come in frequently (read: friends with active lifestyles) and they have to change the walls to keep everyone coming back. I'm sure there are many other activities like this but the rock wall was what did it for me.
I'm working towards triathalon. I got back into running exactly a month ago, and ran a half-marathon last weekend. This weekend I went swimming, running and cycling at the gym both days. I've had to teach myself swimming and Sunday was the first day that I felt like I had the breathing in some form of control. It's fabulous to be so in the habit that it's easy to go. My trainer advises doing big stretches, biut that keep heartrate low.
I'm spread very thin at work between support, sysadmin and development. I do my best work on focus stuff (development and production sysadmin) at strange hours after several cups of tea, and am unhealthy on this count.
The food advice I've seen elsewhere here is good. Avoid sugar and starch (chips are tasty but terrible), always have breakfast. I used to be one of these geeks who didn't have breakfast, I've no idea how I survived. Some food in the morning is critical. Vegemite on toast (it's popular in Australia) is a killer breakfast - easy and consistently good.
UK have deals at the moment to get cheap bicycles through work. Also everyone's broke, so gyms are less busy, which has worked out well for me.
nice work! i ran my first half-marathon last spring. it was awesome!! anyone reasonably athletic can train in a couple months to run a half-marathon no problem. long running is totally awesome and zen. i've been meaning to get back into it but wacky swim sports have taken over my evenings.
Summary: 100,000+ person study found that men who ran two or more marathons per year were 41 percent less likely to suffer from high blood pressure, 32 percent less likely to have high cholesterol, and 87 percent less likely to be diabetic than non-marathoners. Those who ran only one marathon every two to five years also had significantly lower risk for these conditions than non-marathoners.
Other studies link long-distance cardio with neurogenesis, increased life expectancy, and more.
> 41 percent less likely to suffer from high blood pressure
Compared to whom? Serious racquet sport competitors? Power lifters? No, compared to couch potatoes with lousy diets. Well no shit. That's not the point.
Endurance athletes fare significantly better than basketball, soccer and sprinting athletes, who fare better than power athletes, who fare better than couch potatoes.
In terms of life expectancy, endurance athletes such as marathoners and cross-country skiers live about 2 years longer than sprinters, 4 years longer than power lifters and 6 years longer than the general populace.
The link is worthless. Some researchers say runners live long ... because their model says runners live long. Tautology.
Why didn't they just look at dead olympic athletes? That would be an interesting and potentially worthwhile study. Actually, I know why: that study would have been hard work whereas for this garbage all they had to do was plug a canned data set into some silly unverified pharma model they tweaked for their own agenda.
"The current report demonstrates a high prevalence of advanced
coronary atherosclerosis and myocardial scar formation in see-
mingly healthy marathon runners aged >50 years."
I've repeatedly cited gigantic peer-reviewed studies including the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1999) one in which participants were split into many groups based upon differing levels of activity from sedentary to daily runners. Each one has shown dose-dependent gains from cardio-vascular exercise. And in each case, you've shrugged off the research and then come back with something like this.
From your links:
"Heidbüchel's study included only a small, highly selective population of endurance athletes, predominantly cyclists, who engage in a particular type of strain, with preexisting arrhythmias."
So even when you specifically searched for "runners die young", it came back with a paper that states that marathon running is part of a healthy lifestyle and then goes on to talk about possible risks for those who race without sufficient training or who are trying to undo decades of unhealthy living. Over half of the participants were former smokers. The paper does not in any way claim that "endurance sports can mess up your heart rhythm" nor is the quotation you took out of context representative. In fact, it said:
"Marathon running is part of a healthy lifestyle. There is overwhelming evidence for the cardiovascular protective effects of physical activity."
What is it with this? What ax to grind is so important that it's worth posting misleading, disingenuous summaries of research you find by googling for your already chosen conclusion? As I asked last time, Can you refer me to any peer-reviewed research linking sprint training or weight training with equal or greater benefit in any of the health indicators that Paul Williams's 100,000 person study found distance running improved?
Your studies are all observational garbage, as were the two links I posted, more to make a point than anything. And they both did in fact raise questions about damage caused by distance training. They just couched their language with platitudes about how healthy distance training is, presumably to ward off concerted attack.
I don't have an ax to grind. I literally don't want people trying to get in shape to waste large amounts of time and hurt their knees and so on doing long distance running when it is so much inferior for losing weight and maintaining fitness. I want to steer them in the right direction. They will have so much more success training in other ways.
It is common knowledge at this point that interval training, sprints, and properly done strength training produce all the same cardiovascular health benefits as distance training but without the repetitive stress and other physiological stresses of long distance. Also without the huge time investment. Also with much better body fat percentage measurements. You can use google as well as I can.
>Your studies are all observational garbage, as were the two links I posted, more to make a point than anything.
The studies I've referred you to are the largest, the most rigorous that have ever been done to date on the topic. They are not "observational garbage".
>You can use google as well as I can.
Well, that's the thing. My knowledge comes from readining actual journals and having doctors in the family who can interpret them. You're the one googling "runners die young". In fact, the actual study behind your NYT link paints a different picture than the NYT article did. See the conclusion:
"We conclude that SIT is a time-efficient strategy to elicit improvements in peripheral vascular structure and function that are comparable to ET. However, alterations in central artery distensibility may require a longer training stimuli and/or greater initial vascular stiffness than observed in this group of healthy subjects."
I repeat, Can you refer me to any peer-reviewed research linking sprint training or weight training with equal or greater benefit in any of the health indicators that Paul Williams's 100,000 person study found distance running improved? I seriously doubt it, because I've scoured every journal I have access to for comparative studies, and every one of those studies found greater longevity and fewer lifestyle diseases in endurance athletes than in speed or power athletes.
Short bursts of intense exercise every few days could dramatically cut the risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, according to an expert.
"If we can get people in their 20s, 30s and 40s doing these exercises twice a week then it could have a very dramatic effect on the future prevalence of diabetes."
Strong people live longest (I post this despite acknowledging it is also model derived garbage):
Jonatan R. Ruiz and his co-authors tested more than 8,000 subjects aged 20 to 80 for muscular strength. They grouped individuals into three categories of strength and found that the age-adjusted risk of cancer was 17.5 per thousand in the weakest group, 11.0 in the middle group, and 10.3 in the strongest group. The weaker groups also had higher blood pressure, higher cholesterol, more cardiovascular disease, and more of them had diabetes. (Cancer Epidemiological Biomarkers Prevention 2009;18(5):1468–76).
>the actual study behind your NYT link paints a different picture than the NYT article did
No, it incidentally raised a question, just as the previous link about heart rhythm problems in cyclists raised a much more strongly indicated question about exercise induced damage.
sure. i don't plan to run a marathon for similar concerns about health. i still believe that a half marathon is totally different than a marathon.
here's why: "athletic" folks in my mind are those who play running sports such as frisbee, soccer or bball. Even just pickup, which is low stress and to some extent low motivation, require stamina of 1-2 hrs. Athletic folks are comfortable going on half hour runs a few times a week.
Quadrupling that running time to 2 hrs is a small matter of stamina and psychology. Assuming you're not running a half marathon to win, there's no need for physical destruction.
i'll happily play frisbee for 2 hrs (with water breaks, hard sprints and down time on the line), but get bored running. training for a half-marathon was a great experience mostly because of the mental zen aspect. you get into a zone...it's wonderful. i'd come home, lie down for a bit, eat a great breakfast, and do some excellent coding.
running in the half-marathon was exhilerating. there are so many people, and there's such a great sense of accomplishment afterward. having the goal of running a race--however long--is excellent motivation, too.
(the link you provided contains so many questionable methodologies and conclusions that i can't take it seriously)
The first thing mentioned on this list, raised liver enzyme markers (ALT and AST) also occurs if you measure them shortly after doing the strenuous weight lifting exercises deVany prescribes.
I'm a writer so I believe my priorities are very similar, but somewhat different than your average hacker:
1. Try to eat breakfast; the reason here is two-fold, first is that it's good for your metabolism and the second is that it helps if 5. fails.
2. Eat Smart; the brain likes omega-3's but the omega-6's will kill you. 'Healthy' is very different for 'smart', you want foods that help increase your efficiency and concentration, not make you run to the toilet every 5 minutes because you're downing pro-biotic yogurts and bran muffins.
3. Weightless exercises; I'm guessing everyone here has a few extra pounds on them, squats and crunches can be done anywhere and at any time, you don't need to lug around a few 20lb weights to get your sweat on. If you do it frequently it can help boost your metabolism.
4. Get a good sleep routine, being exhausted can kill an entire day of productivity.
5. Avoid alcohol (at least before 5pm), alcoholism seems to be a non-genetic inheritable disease in writers, so try not to have a drink in the morning. Make sure you observe #1, because forgetting #1 and #5 means you're hitting the bed by 11am.
6. relax a little, play games, read some HN, but don't slack off. It's good to keep your stress levels down, not only does it help your creativity and productivity, but you also don't have the urge to break #5.
7. this follows on from #6, but is much more important in the long run, having a day off helps prevent a burn out, AKA writers (coders?) block.
9. Drink tea not coffee. Research shows that coffee can increase stress, decrease work performance and can decrease your confidence in your work. Tea however decreases stress, not only through drinking it but due to the ritual and the time taken to make it (you don't get a tea maker, you get a kettle and have to wait, waiting generally means relaxing).
Overall I just try to be productive and hope that in the long run I don't end up an alcoholic like 1/2 of writers.
> 5. Shop for food on the outer walls of grocery store
Haha, I never thought of it that way, but that is good advice and a great way of putting it (all the processed food is in the middle), you still have to be careful though of things like milk, which although it's one the outer wall, generally isn't a good thing to take. I always go for the almond milk and avoid regular milk like the plague.
I also shop at local grocery markets to get local food, and things like local, organic eggs from chickens that eat grass and crickets and don't spend their lives pumped full of hormones, living in their excrement.
not harmful but a lot of people have a ver yvery slight lactose intolerance that means you can "feel" better if you stop drinking milk. If I drink really milky tea or coffee I usually feel pretty queasy for the rest of the day (for example)
> Is there any empirical evidence that milk is harmful?
When much of the USDA and other governmental bodies are either made up of food company lobbyists, or are influenced by them, it's hard to know what the truth actually is.
There's lots of other seemingly-quackery stuff out there, but from what I can tell the main issue is that no one has funded what you're looking for: a long-term, controlled, peer-reviewed study of the effects of modern (non-raw) milk. My guess is because a lot of companies with a lot of money who already exert a lot of power over governmental bodies and grant-givers, don't want such research done.
But, if you're willing to read what's out there, just google it:
If you check around, you may be able to find some urban farmers. I live in the middle of a city, and get more eggs than I can handle free from a friend who has a small flock of chickens 2mi away. For fruits and vegetables, I still mostly buy at a small immigrant-owned market, but when lychee season rolls around I have another friend who grows those.
Since I'm posting on this thread, I'll go ahead and share two other health secrets: Practice Система and massage. Causing pain, and removing it. Human touch is important!
Sleep well, eat right and exercise. You'll have your best success if you do all three. Named diets alone, which most of us try over and over, won't get you long term success.
I do CrossFit for exercise, which I first heard about right here on HN, thank you very much. Unless you already know exercise technique really well, I would recommend actually joining a crossfit gym rather than just doing the workouts from the web. They'll teach you how to exercise correctly and safely. Do you know how to squat properly? Probably not. :)
I'm over fifty, out of shape and haven't exercised since I graduated high school. I've been going to CrossFit since this July, and I now jog six flights of stairs up and down at work (at 5,000 feet in Denver), and the workouts that wiped me out in the beginning are now merely really difficult. You don't have to be a jock, they scale everything to your ability. I'm really pleased. Check it out. Probably more than one near you.
Crossfit-style work outs are great. I used to participate in a class that did very intense work outs three times a week. Also, look up what tabata runs are, they did wonders for my endurance.
I ride my bike to work, and have been for the last 3 years. I lost about 50 pounds quickly (I was about 250 at the time) and then kind of hit the wall around 190. I'm still fat, but my lungs and heart are in great shape. My round-trip is about 29 miles, but I also have several multi-mode options that involve mixing bicycle and bus, shortening the bicycle part of my trip to anywhere from 2.7 to 7 miles each direction. This time of year, it's not uncommon for me to ride to the bus on chilly mornings and soak it up with a 14-15 mile homeward ride.
At this point, I'm suffering from T-rex syndrome. Massive, muscular legs, good overall health, and very little upper body. I started 100 pushups a while back ago, then dislocated a shoulder. I'm about ready to start it back up again. Pushups were really working my core and arms. Cycling and pushups seems like a good start at full-body workout without a gym membership.
We may be complimentary hackers in this sense, so I'd like to expand on this sentence of yours.
I don't exercise very much, but be it good genes or not, I'm very healthy--ahem, as far as I know, where'd I put that piece of wood..?
From my years of exposure to the topic, what I've found is that your last sentence deserves far more than a sentence dedicated to it. For some (and only some) of the reasoning along this line of thought, see the TIME article "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin": http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.ht...
To stay healthy, I try my best to eat healthy. This means buying as many organic veggies that I can satisfactorily afford, and cooking and eating them at home. If you want to have a delicious and healthy dinner, don't go out, make it yourself at home. Besides saving money on the food and gas, you'll have yourself a healthier meal and you'll be doing the planet a favor. It'll probably taste better too.
Although I don't really think of myself as one, I'm typically a vegetarian as well. Meaning, I'll eat meat, but only if that meat was organically produced at a local farm. As such meat is hard to come by at the store, and completely nonexistant at the restaurants near me, this tends to be a very rare occasion indeed. Avoiding meat not only means that I spend less money on my groceries, but it also means I'm helping the environment, and am healthier as well (as a result of what "industrial meat" is).
Of course, discussions on healthy eating, and food in general, shouldn't fail to reference the movie Food Inc. and the book that inspired it: Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma". If you haven't read that book, or seen that documentary, you may disagree with what I've said, and there's a decent chance that what you're eating is going to put you, and a decent chunk of American society, in an early grave. ;-)
Obviously, my "I guess" was tongue in cheek. Volumes upon volumes have been written on it. It should be common sense that you don't fuel your daily existence with ho-hos and mountain dew. Unfortunately, a lot of hackers opt for that -- or worse! some days, I'm guilty of it, but I do burn about 1,800 kCal on the bike daily. Still, burning the calories you eat is only part of the deal.
The whole "organic" thing doesn't strike me as any sort of requirement for being healthy. If you think it helps, good. But having grown up in a Nebraska family where a good wholesome meaty meal that probably came out of a feed lot 20 miles away, I can say I've seen plenty of people grow to be slender, muscular and very healthy without adopting the organic/granola/veg*n mindset. However our species got where we are, everything between our teeth and our colon is configured for a balanced diet of meat, fiber, legumes, grains, and veggies. And that's what I eat.
My great grandfather did the same. He croaked at age 107.
When was your grandfather born? He and his generation may very well have been eating what today is labeled "organic food".
Factory farming is a relatively new phenomenon that has swept the country in only recently, and with phenomenal speed.
>> In the 1930s, 24 percent of the American population worked in agriculture compared
to 1.5 percent in 2002; in 1940, each farm worker supplied 11 consumers, whereas in 2002, each worker supplied 90 consumers.[23]
>> The number of farms has also decreased, and their ownership is more concentrated. In the U.S., four companies produce 81 percent of cows, 73 percent of sheep, 57 percent of pigs and 50 percent of chickens.[24] In 1967, there were one million pig farms in America; as of 2002, there were 114,000,[25] with 80 million pigs (out of 95 million) killed each year on factory farms as of 2002, according to the U.S. National Pork Producers Council.[23]
He was born in 1884, and passed in 1991. He was an avid mycologist by hobby, writing a few books on mushrooms -- the very food he used to credit for his longevity. I'm glad he was around long enough for me to get to know him. I'll concede the fact that in his era, things were done a lot more naturally than they are now if for no other reason than they lacked the technology to do it any other way.
I also think reducing meat intake, and selecting only bio-meat from animals raised with a certain amount of respect is the ethical thing to do. It doesn't need to be an all or nothing thing (i.e. vegan)...
P90X satisfies both my inner nerd and my inner extremist. I started with a roommate last year. I really need to get back into the swing of it this year before I start flabbing again.
EDIT: Also, thanks for posting this! You inspired me to finally set up the pull-up bar I bought last week. Having it outside the bathroom will hopefully prod me into starting up again.
When I can, I train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu three times a week. I add in a day or two of serious strength training as time and my body permits. If I can't do regular BJJ, then I do four to five days of serious strength training a week.
I train for competitions, and I take it seriously. My strength training tends towards the Crossfit style.
Weight lifting 3x a week for a little over an hour each time. Going to the gym can be daunting if you have never done it and/or don't have a buddy. "I don't know how to use the equipment", etc. I read Starting Strength and afterwards felt confident enough to get in there and try it out.
Strong Lifts follows the same philosophy as SS, but has modified the workout some. The stronglifts site does cover nutrition (calorie/protein intake) to some extent, which SS does not.
I would do some research on your own first before starting a routine. There is a lot of controversy as well as misinformation about the topic.
I have been following stronglifts for about 6 months (sticking to simple free weight exercises and short reps).
My friend, who has been working out for much longer, has been doing the usual mix of machines and an overly creative mix of free weight exercises (the type personal trainers love to show off).
Being about the same body type, I've progressed much faster then he has. I've also found it easier to stick with it because I have a well researched workout plan that is dead simple.
There's a starting strength dvd set that's much more accessible then the book which I highly recommend when you starting lifting the heavier weights where proper form is really important. I learned the hard way after having lower back and shoulder pain, which is gone now that I know how to lift properly and started doing dynamic stretches.
I lift weights 3 days a week, first following the program laid out in the book Starting Strength and more recently following "The Texas Method" as described in Practical Programming for Strength Training by the same authors.
More recently I've started following the Zone Diet and doing a medicine ball workout 3 days a week (lifting MWF, med ball TuThS). Google "med ball 400".
After a year of that I'm starting to look like a heroic Greek statue (my wife likes that), I feel awesome, and my productivity is through the roof. All in 30 minutes max per day (with one day a week off).
I bike around town, walk a lot, and run occasionally. I find that the strength training makes running and fast cycling easy when I do it.
I'm terrible at sticking with a regular workout commitment, but I try to do whatever seems fun - and, most importantly, try to never turn down a chance to exercise (sports, workout, whatever) with friends, because that's always a lot more fun.
Over the last two years, I've done: rollerblading, soccer, jogging, P90X, tennis, frisbee, golf (driving range), swimming. I'm far from good at any of them, and I do occasionally go for a couple of weeks or even months without doing much, but I figure every bit helps. Fun is the key - as well as doing as much as possible with friends.
P90X is great for someone looking for a hardcore solution - it's hard, but it WORKS, if you actually stick with it (it's not a small time investment). I only did it for about a month, and I could feel the difference - now that winter's coming, I might start it up again.
It sounds obvious, but it is really difficult. Avoiding social eating and resisting the urge to clean my plate has been one of the hardest things I have ever endeavored to do, but it has vastly reduced my digestive symptoms.
- No liquid calories, ever. Your daily caloric limit is too low for you to waste it on Coke and Pepsi.
- Watch what I eat. Go for high-fiber low-fat foods. Nothing fancy here - stick to low fat and high fiber and your diet generally doesn't require thought.
- Photography. I hate exercise for the sake of exercise, and have never been able to commit to a gym schedule despite many tries. My photography, though, keeps me walking and biking a lot, all over the city. The quest for the next great picture keeps me moving, and that's pretty awesome.
I've never been big on exercising for the sake of exercise, but I do regularly go to a rock climbing gym. It's good exercise, but more importantly it's fun, unlike lifting weights. It requires the use of your brain: a good climb is like a puzzle you solve with your whole body. Great way to meet people, too.
The only concern for hackers would be strain on the wrists. If you have wrist problems climbing probably isn't for you, but personally I feel like climbing has strengthened my wrists and actually been beneficial.
Actually, I am an avid rock climber and have noticed that rock climbing is good for my wrists. I used to suffer from severe tendonitis and climbing has helped strengthen my forearms so that it doesn't affect me as much. My tendonitis has never gone away, but climbing has greatly diminished it.
On top of that, I am pretty sure climbing is the best full body workout you can do. I am in the best shape of my life at 25.
Every time climbing comes up, I am still surprised how many HNers climb. I've been gym climbing for about two years, climbing outdoors (sport and top rope) for a little over one, and I'm just starting to learn how to trad climb. I have a workable rack at this point.
If anyone is near the MD/DC/VA area and needs a climbing partner, chime in.
I suffer from attention deficit disorder, but before I was diagnosed I was self-medicating myself with stimulants – coffee and energy drinks. I started a two-Red-Bull-per-day habit. I found that I was better able to focus in the morning, and could more easily handle the morning's issues, making me far more productive at work.
So, apparently I have Crohn's Disease. I found that out because the Red Bull irritated my digestive system so much that I had my first flare up and ended up in the hospital – twice. That was three years ago, and I'm only just now starting to recover from it. I'm getting my energy back, I can drink and eat more food, etc. Except I have to take immunosuppressant medication to keep the Crohn's controlled, which means I get sick (cold, flu, etc.) extremely easily, and I stay sick a lot longer. Also, I've had a ton of radiation exposure due to all the CAT scans, etc. I've gone through.
So, next time someone tells you Red Bull (or whatever) is bad for you, don't just shrug it off like I did. Our bodies are fragile machines in a delicate balance. Upset that balance enough and the machine goes haywire, and it's pretty hard to find spare parts.
Thanks for the link. A person close to me has recently started exhibiting symptoms of MS (and no, in probably the one and only case on this site, that doesn't stand for Microsoft). I will be sure to speak to the neurologist about this treatment and associated research.
Funny story: A startup I used to work for occupies the former offices of a snowboard company. We continued to receive monthly promotional cases of Red Bull for as long as I worked there.
I was a jittery mess for the two months I had a 3+/day habit.
Which has as a lead "Energy drink consumption has been anecdotally linked to the development of adverse cardiovascular effects in consumers, although clinical trials to support this link are lacking.", but there are some interesting observations in it.
I stayed up all night before my sub-thesis due date finishing it off thanks to Red Eye (red bull analogue). I had so much of it that I was literally shaking late into the night.
In general my caffiene intake is zero - my theory is if you drink it every day it has less of an effect than when you really need it. I rely on willpower most of the time if working late.
A reverse tolerance, as is commonly associated with marijuana? My experience has been different. I used to be addicted to caffeine. I wasn't measuring my intake, but at times it was probably near a gram a day. Since breaking my addiction, I have caffeine on occasion. A single cup of black tea now has a pretty strong effect on me, where previously it was barely noticeable.
Former biofeedback therapist here. The effect of caffeine on muscle tension is measurable: it is impossible for nearly everyone to achieve as deep a muscular relaxation (measured by EMG) after just 100mg caffeine.
I haven't looked at evidence in years, but the gastrointestinal and heart rate effects of even higher levels can be remarkable. I remember medical journal articles (Am J Psychiatry, i believe) referring to it as "caffeinism" - since the mental-alertness benefits habituate, but not the autonomic stimulation.
Like with any mind-alteration: exercise caution. Listen to what your own body tells you.
Keeping it simple. The two main principles:
1.) you can't out-run a bad diet;
2.) effort trumps everything else.
Eat cleanly ("if it doesn't go off, don't eat it", etc).
Exercise: a mix of weights and conditioning; I favour short, high-intensity workouts for conditioning, with steady-state aerobic running occasionally for variety. Others have mentioned crossfit which is certainly good -- I've been basing my workouts around http://www.rosstraining.com for a while, with great results. Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 routine is great on the weights side of things, and you can find most of the info on it in this interview: http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_train...
Routines help; as a hacker it's likely you have at least mild obsessive-compulsive tendencies (maybe that's just me, but it seems common in hacker friends too). Being obsessive means that you're less likely to skip a workout, eat badly, go to bed at irregular hours, etc.
+1 for the mental relaxation (including rest/deload days if you're exercising seriously) mentioned by others as well.
After a lot of research, I put this plan into action for myself.
Diet: Lots of plants, ~15% of total kcals from meat (very little red meat, more chicken + fish), ~15% kcals from dairy. I'm not exact about it. Eating a diverse group of foods, getting good amounts of fiber, yogurt, and complex carbohydrates helped shed some pounds.
Exercise: 30-45 minutes 3 to 5 times a week of time spent running at 60-80% of max heart rate. body weight exercises focusing on core strength (a good resource for those here http://www.combatfitness.co.uk/ ). Stretching, yoga, whatever, stretching is exercise too. I also go sprinting and lift weights via dumbbells to get some more in.
Meditation: Lots of different ways to do this. I picked one that worked for me and moved on to other things. I started doing muscle relaxation techniques, since I'm sitting so often. More on those here: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/relaxation-technique/SR0000...
I lost 50 pounds over the past year and a half--feels great. :)
Exercise: Cycling is my default. I enjoy it and happen to live in a great place to engage in it. I try to do short rides on week days (~30 miles) and longer rides on weekends (~70 miles). In two weeks I'll be doing my first century ride. Besides cycling, I play Ultimate at least once a week, goto the gym 3 to 4 times a week, rock climb and hike when I have time. At times I throw into my regime some running, tennis, or soccer. Essentially, I try to be as active as possible.
Food: I eat mostly vegetables, rarely red meat. Typical meals are: Breakfast (2 egg scramble with pepperjack and salsa; with some juice), Lunch (sliced turkey, pepperjack and a tomato on whole grain bread, with some fruit), Dinner (usually some sort of vegetable stir fry, pasta vegetable combination, or rice and beans with vegetables). Between meals I either eat some fruit or some cereal or granola with soy milk or yogurt. Throughout the day I drink lots of water and usually some juice.
Caffeine: I am in love with tea my default being loose leaf jasmine green. Coffee is a rarity. Red bull is never an option.
> Caffeine: I am in love with tea my default being loose leaf jasmine green. Coffee is a rarity. Red bull is never an option.
We are alike sir, I just wish I could cycle as much as you do. The great thing about tea is that unlike coffee, the caffeine high is subtler and is spread over a longer period of time. As I can't be bothered to steep the loose-leaf tea I just go with Tazo's Earl Grey in the morning; highly recommend that brand if you're into bagged tea.
Health is much more than "routines to stay in shape". Consider what you eat, your exercise, how you sleep, and how you manage stress. Personally, I go for lots of plants, 30-45 minutes a day, 6-7 hours solid a day, and re: stress, a variety of "getting things done" type techniques to stay on top of my work, which is my main stressor.
I worked at startups for 10 years and the only thing I got out of it was 50 extra pounds of bodyfat and an anxiety disorder. One of the best things I have done for my health is getting an easy, but high-paying quasi-corporate job and reducing the number of hours I spend at work. Sitting in front of a computer 12 hours a day is bad for mental and physical health. It can't really be compensated for by switching to diet soda and 30 minutes on the treadmill. My goal now is to continue to recuperate and lose 20 more pounds and save up enough money to do a complete career change. I'm not sure what yet, I'm trying to figure out something where I can use my mind but also not be chained to a desk all day.
That might be a tough pill to swallow for the hacker news crowd, so here are things I did to fix my health, and lose 30 pounds while I was still in startup mode:
- pilates fixed a lot of back and flexibility problems
- break up the work day in to two halves. between those two spend an hour walking or working out at the gym
- walk, bike or skateboard to work. My job is 4 and a half miles away.
- swimming
- sprinting at the track
- I tried to stand up and do work whenever possible.
- Used one of those swiss exercise balls instead of an office chair
- avoid the typical beer & pizza binges after a release
- cut out sugar and most refined carbs, except for special occasions like when grandma bakes cookies. but even then, only eat a couple and give the rest away.
- eat salads, berries, almonds,lean meats, egg whites for most meals.
- started drinking seltzer. I love carbonated drinks, but most of them are bad for you. Seltzer is great, it's just carbonated water. Now I don't drink soda and drink about 1/10th the amount of beer I used to.
- bought a blood sugar meter. It turns out with all the carbs and sugary stuff I was eating I was making myself pre-diabetic. After 2 months with limited carbs and no sugar, my blood sugar was down to 70-80. (instead of 100-120)
- one day a week don't use the computer at all
- weekends try to spend at least 8 hours outside, cycling, biking, walking around
- make friends with people outside of internet messenger
> Drink as much water as you can: helps flush the body, a hydrated body is a happy body
I heard of this too, but I wonder: isn't there such thing as drinking too much? If anything, I suppose it puts high stress on your kidneys and washes away salts.
> Cook your own food: know the ingredients, the less you eat the more you will enjoy it and want it to taste better
This is so that you won't eat too much, I suppose? Not everyone has such problem. Besides, maybe the things I can cook myself are not the healthiest ever.
> Spice up a salad (we have molars for a reason): a vinaigrette and some almonds or walnuts are great
This is so that you will be able to eat more of it, I suppose? Again, I don't have such problem as I taught myself to really like salads. Besides, vinegar kills white blood cells.
I am afraid, as fine a community as we might be, in questions of human health most of us are clueless. So we'd better not expect that sharing and following such fads gives more benefit than harm.
I'd better go with established sources of information on health issues.
If you know that alfredo is equal parts butter, cream and parmesan, you will use it more sparingly.
In general, if you know what goes into food (e.g. oil, butter etc), you realize how many calories (e.g. food) is in it.
Also, (generally) it is somewhat difficult to cook the heavily fried and sugared foods at home. (requires a great deal of special equipment). Stew is easy. Veggies are easy.
I bike to and from school and work. I was doing yoga for a while, but fell out of it once I moved. I keep telling myself to start going again, but I always put it off.
I try to hike and boulder whenever I can find people to go with me. I really wish we had a rock climbing gym here. If we did, I'd probably be there every other day as my current climbing spot is a 30 minute drive followed by a 30 minute hike in. 2 hours transit isn't really worth it for me unless I have a couple buddies with me.
I'd definitely suggest yoga to anyone that wants to build some core strength and calm their mind. It's a lot more difficult than it looks.
I was a vegetarian for about 5 months, and some of those habits have stuck around (less fast food, more fruits and green stuff). I should probably get back to that, seeing as how I've never felt better than when I wasn't eating meat.
One of the most fun active sports that I have played in a long time is racquetball. Very physical and very fun. Get a standing game going every week with some friends and you will notice your cardio benefits quickly. I also have a blast doing it because there is so much action going on that you don't have any time to think about breaking the build or anything else really.
I will also second the rock climbing gym as a fun exercise too. While it is physically demanding it takes longer to get physically drained so that could be a consideration. (3 hours vs. 1 - 1.5 hours for racquetball).
I don't have time to fanaticism over health. Easy to say while healthy, but heck, I live to do what I want.
That said, I rarely drink, I don't smoke, I've never taken drugs, I drink a TON of water. I'm overweight but blood pressure is good and other signs are good (as of last full checkup). So I don't find the caffeine and chocolate addictions too much to deal with.
At least half the people round my way seem to be smoking, drinking every day, or carrying a lot more weight than me, so merely being "average" in the health department is OK for me right now.
Mastering discipline is as much of a factor in staying healthy as it is in startups. Sticking to a workout schedule, pushing yourself to work harder, and not giving in to excess food uses the same mental fortitude that founders use to keep costs down and output up.
I spend the majority of my waking hours sitting, either in lecture or at a computer. I counterbalance the sedentary nature of studying computer science by exercising at least 3 times per week, cooking simple and nutritious meals, and drinking copious amounts of water and tea.
(1) Make your diet decisions at the grocery store to remove temptation at home.
(2)Find exercise that you think is fun. I personally can't run for more than 2-3 miles without getting incredibly bored, but hiking for 30 strenuous miles over gorgeous terrain is enjoyable. So too is chasing a little black ball around a squash court or running after a frisbee. Each person will enjoy different kinds of exercise, but once you find the one you like it'll turn "having to exercise" into "getting to go _play_ <x>".
edit: used to be 4-court roller tennis with our dog on defense. my husband and i love to make up games. activity keeps my energy and spirits up, makes it easier to focus. plus, the walks are useful for us to discuss and plan for our startup. walking around is a great way to pull your thoughts together and be more creative. same with taking a dump or shower ;-)
Vitamin B-Complex tends to help my fingers from feeling numb when typing all day. (Told to me by a doctor many years ago when I came to him with numb finger tips).
I try to eat not a lot, and mostly stuff that doesn't come in a wrapper. I climb two to three times a week and some weekends, for 2-3 hrs at a time. I supplement climbing with two to three 30-45 minute lifting gym sessions. I used to run, but not anymore, something I have to start again. I also try to do pull ups every night as I'm competing with my room mate.
oh yeah, i used to make a point of taking the stairs up and down at least once a day. 14 floor, so wasn't easy. i pretended i was training for a mountain hike one day. i mean, i am training, i just don't know when i'm going to climb a really tall mountain.
It's important to realize the body is a machine : you have particular protein, fiber and calorie requirements. Meet them. I take a protein shake every day and a large quantity of veggies and skimp on carbs. I make sure to keep in mind caffeine is a drug and I monitor my dose. I do pushups and situps and as soon as my damn knee heals, I am back to running.
You can use a daily needs calculator, like the one on nutritiondata.com, and plan out the food that you eat every day. It's not going to be exact, but it's better than eating what you feel like, when you feel like it.
The real answer to this is to pay attention. The body has all kinds of warning signs and notifications, but most people don't pay attention to them.
For example, after you finish a meal, do you feel like you ate too much? You probably did, and yet most people have it so ingrained into them by their parents to finish everything on their plate that they overeat, which messes up your body's metabolism (it thinks there's a glut of resources and converts to 'store fat for later' mode).
A past roommate used to have a huge problem with his skin, lots of acne and rashes and so on, until one day he had the flu so bad he couldn't get out of bed for a few days. His friends were literally bringing food to him at his apartment because he couldn't get off his couch. By the end of the week, his skin had cleared up. Within two days after recovering, his skin had gone to hell again. Sick again, healthy skin.
After analyzing it, he determined that the only significant change (other than actually being sick) was his diet. He made a list of all the things he typically ate, and introduced them back one by one. Turns out eggs, which are 'good for you', were an allergen. He cut them out of his diet and he's been healthier, sick less often, clear skin, and a host of other minor improvements.
If you eat something then your stomach feels upset, stop eating it. Get a little note pad and jot down what you eat whenever you eat it, or just make a note in your head. If you start feeling unwell (stomach, headache, etc.) 20-40 minutes later, make a note of what it was, and cut it out of your diet.
One day, just out of high school, I was cleaning up my desk at home and realized that most of the pop cans I had on my desk were half-full. I wasn't finishing my Dr. Pepper, even though I really liked it. Then I thought about it and realized I didn't really like it. I used to, but I kept drinking it out of habit. Still, if I wasn't finishing it, I must not like it that much. I stopped buying it. I've since cut out all canned beverages and fountain drinks. After a year or so, I discovered that I can no longer tolerate them. I've removed them from my diet, and now my body doesn't have the resistance it's built up to them.
I could probably build up a tolerance to them again if I wanted, but why would I do that? You shouldn't be eating or drinking anything you have to build up a tolerance to.
For your specific case, make some notes of how you feel, and then change things. Take a baseline, then add more protein. Take some Omega-3 supplements, remove carbs for a week or two, and see how it affects you. A step-aunt's autistic son went from unmanagable to a sweetheart by removing processed carbohydrates from his diet. No toast in the morning, no pasta in the evening, and suddenly his mother's living hell became a relative paradise.
When in doubt, remove all the artificial, pre-processed crap foods from your diet. Shop, as one poster suggested, on the outside walls of the grocery store – meat, fish, poultry, vegetables. Try taking dairy out of your diet. Try taking sausages. I can't digest animal fats, so both of these are bad ideas for me. Same with bacon. Try taking things out. Reconsider everything in your diet, and don't be afraid to play around. Add things, remove things. Read other people's experiences. Make notes, and learn from them. Build hypotheses and test them. Approach it like a science experiment, because that's really what it is.
my favorite meal, after peanutbutter on apples or cheese on apples or peanutbutter on carrots, is to cook vegetables in some olive oil in a cast iron pan. parsnips, carrots, green peppers, onions, eggplant, radishes, whatever (usually not all at the same time). paprika and chili powder, or tumeric while cooking, or green zatar and nutritional yeast and sesame oil once it is done.
i think running 4 miles a day would be too distracting for me, but that does sound fun. i tend to exercise at night once i've gotten all my work out of my system, and i don't like to run at night. pool is open until 11pm though.
I run a half-marathon twice a year which motivates me to train and run frequently. Also, I eat clean 6 days a week Mon-Fri,Sun and eat anything on Sat. If I do drink soda, it's diet dr.pepper. I try to limit alcohol consumption to Sat.
Summary: Eat clean 6 days a week, run/cycle/swim at least 2-3 days a week, and take a multivitamin daily.
To respond to both: It is probably a good idea to watch what you eat. There appear to be two factions who agree on this. They disagree on how you should do this. One (China study) claims you should avoid animal-derived products (I think. Haven't really read it). The other claims the opposite (meat rocks!).
Needless to say, both say that the other technique will lead to suboptimal results, and both say the science is on their side.
I moved next to a big park and got a dog. The dog park is about 1 mile away and I take my dog (rather she pulls me there) there about 5 times a week so that's about 10 miles I end up walking/jogging each week.
and this doesnt include the regular walks we go on.
Can I ask the rationale behind "eat crap one day, eat healthy other"? Why not just eat healthy (or better than "crap") both days and realize 2x the benefit? This sounds like an excuse to rationalize poor eating habits.
Also 4-9 hours is an incredibly wide range of sleep to prescribe.
I make an active decision to (most of the time) eat good food, and to not eat bad food. I drink mostly water and try to exercise a few times a week. Easy on the coffee, almost no energy drinks.
I'm jogging 3 miles a day every other day. Worked up to my first 5K over the summer (following "Couch to 5K" program, google it), hoping to work up to 10k next soon.
I chose this activity because it integrates my commute time and exercise time. Together, are about 120 - 150 minutes daily but separately they used to be anywhere from the same to 3.5 hours.
I count calories and try to stick to a consistent limit, and bike around 8 miles Monday through Friday. It's probably the 8 miles of biking that provides the benefit.
I have discovered racquetball since arriving to a college campus. It's phenomenal. Find someone that plays on an equal level with you and its a blast. Great cardio.
Learn to be comfortable eating while walking, spend your lunch time walking around exploring and observing... This happens to be good for the mind as well
I actually wouldn't recommend this. Doing something else (watching tv, working, driving, even walking) while eating takes most of the enjoyment out of the food. Also, I can imagine very few foods conducive to eating while walking that are not street- or fast-food.
Eating while walking is a bad habit of mine, but by this stage I can eat just about anything while balancing a plate on one hand. Steak is probably my limit.
What sort of reading on health do you recommend for a newbie that wishes to learn how to stay healthy? I'm beginning to worry about my health, but I'd hate to just follow some or another fad diet, even if recommended by fellow hackers. First, I wish to understand how my body works.
check out findmefit.com. it's a blog I started a few months ago, all about helping young professionals live healthy lives through practical advice. i'd love to get your feedback.
And for long distances, too! On the other hand, cycling builds muscles and works your heart more than walking does, so if your objective is anything other than just burning calories cycling is, I think, usually the better exercise.
A (what I call) "real food vegetarian", anyway. There are "vegetarians" out there who consume crazy amounts of horrible processed foods.
IMO people tend to severely overthink diet. It's pretty hard to be unhealthy when you exclusively eat good, real, whole, food. Diet fads come and go, and are often completely contradictory, but this guideline has always, and will always, be more or less true.
Vegans on the left, Atkins people on the right... drop your food religions and just stop eating crap! It's not that difficult.
If you're trying to lose weight, EAT LESS. You can eat the most extremely healthy diet in the world, if you eat a lot, you will get fat. That's how the body works. Again, it's not exactly rocket science.
Latest research shows that oxidative stress that results from cardiovascular exercise is the kind that is most beneficial to physical and mental well being. So I usually go running during the week but I don't stick to a schedule or a minimum distance quota. Listening to how your body responds and acting accordingly minimizes damage and improves recovery times. Since my goal is to improve overall well being I've found that this kind of setup works quite well.
This trumps absolutely anything else you can do: avoid starch and sugar. Eat only meat/fish, vegetables, and fruit. Simply don't eat sugary drinks, cereal, oatmeal, rice, potatoes, bread and so forth. This way everything you eat is nutrient packed.
Eggs and dairy are the best foods I know of. I normally eat four eggs a day (scrambled in lots of butter) and have a large glass of half and half, or sometimes I even drink straight up cream. Full fat yogurt is a fantastic food. I try to dominate my calories with saturated fat. The research is now clear that this is perfectly healthy. It's also a very efficient way to eat because I can very comfortably eat only two meals a day about half the time. Fat sticks with you.
Take vitamin d3 every couple of days. The research that has come out in the last few years on vitamin d is fairly shocking. Most people are deficient and it's a huge risk factor for infections and cancer. We are built to spend almost every day outside in the sun, generating vitamin d in the skin, but people don't do that now, so supplement.
As for exercise, sprint work and brief, intense strength training sessions are the best. Two 20 minute lifting sessions a week are sufficient exercise if that's all you can afford, but you must do it intensely. I frequently dry heave a bit in the shower after. Jogging and cycling are much inferior from a health perspective. You do want to build muscle mass and increase growth hormone and testosterone levels. Muscle buffers insulin. Jogging basically just burns calories and temporarily ramps up metabolism. It has minimal benefits compared to other forms of exercise. When I do go out biking and running I'm always amused by how fat the vast majority of runners on the trails are.
Don't take health advice from people who look like shit or work out like it's their job. I'm always shocked by the number of dough boys pontificating who get taken seriously. Demand a full body picture of anybody purporting to give lifestyle health advice, and if they pass that test make sure they aren't some freak wasting five hours a week working out. I'm 5'10 with a 29 inch waist, noticeable muscle mass, a six pack, and a very low body fat percentage. I spend at most two hours a week in physical activity and often nothing at all. I have turned a couple other people on to eating and exercising this way with very good results. Avoid starch/sugar, work out very hard infrequently and on an empty stomach, and you will get cut and healthy. The high saturated fat intake is optional, but I personally recommend it.
You do realize that you might have just gotten lucky in the genetic and metabolic department, and that others who might not be so lucky in their genetic makeup do need to work out 5 hours a week (or more) to get the same results as you?
It's true I've never been fat, but the changes in my health and body composition as I shifted to eating this way were undeniable. Likewise my health also improved as I phased out a distance biking habit in favor of short, hard lifting routines.
- run 5x per week every morning (~30 miles a week; more if I'm training for something)
- stretch, dynamic before, static after. Essential to prevent injuries
- weight lift 3x per week (bi/tri, chest/upper-back, abs/lower-back/shoulders)
- take rest days
- sleep 9-10 hours a night, going to bed at the same time (EDIT: every's needs here are a little different)
- eat 1 salad per day
- eat lots of fruit (apples, pears, banana's, raspberries, cantaloupe, etc)
- avoid processed foods, and overall eat healthy
- keep stress levels low (figure out what stresses you and then you can manage it)
I use to be very obese (5ft 10in, 240 pounds), but lost the weight through calorie restriction about 10 years ago (6ft 0in, 160 pounds now, muscular, etc). Later I got into running which made me much healthier. That begot eating healthier, which eventually begot weight lifting. Now I can do some crazy stuff, like run up all the stairs in Porter Square. You feel like superman all the time.
The human body needs maintenance. Like a car you can abuse it in the short-run and it's still gonna run. But eventually it catches up with you. Problem is, if a car dies at mile 100,000 because you didn't change its oil often, you buy another car; but you can't buy another body.
It takes time to get into a healthy lifestyle. One-step at a time is the right approach. If you're overweight, focus on calorie restriction. If you're a healthy weight but want to get fit, pick an activity that you'd enjoy. Some people like solitary stuff (running), others like social (team sports or workout classes). If you're not eating healthy, get a book about nutrition and change your diet (Google "Nancy Clark"). You'll eventually find that one healthy step leads to another.
Lastly, keeping healthy is like having a second job. Carving out time and prioritizing it is key. You'll find that friends, employers, bosses, spouses, what-have-you, try to steal this time away from you. You've got to fight back and remember that you're investing in your future. Especially with jobs; would you rather be rich, prestigious and unhealthy, or poor, unknown and healthy? A "good" job or startup will let you be all the good and none of the bad.